Children's Rainbow Garden grows edible lessons in Dauphin County

As Alex and George Bibikos ate watermelon fresh picked from the Children’s Rainbow Garden, Marykaye Flatley tried to teach a lesson about planting.

View full sizeM. DIANE McCORMICK, The Patriot-NewsFrom left, Alex and George Bibikos of Lower Paxton Twp., and Alex Steckline of Lower Allen Twp. carry a watermelon picked from the Children's Rainbow Garden.

“What do you do with the seeds?” she asked the boys.

“You spit!” said Alex, 6.

Alex and his brother, George, 7, are among children throughout the area enjoying the fruits — and vegetables — of the Children’s Rainbow Garden in Susquehanna Twp.

In 2010, the recession prompted a group of friends and neighbors to establish the garden and teach kids and families about healthy foods and the joys of gardening.

“We were wondering how many families who are struggling with paying the bills, how they were handling access to adequate food,” said co-founder Karen Hunsberger of Susquehanna Twp. “We wanted it to be completely accessible — not a huge financial commitment or time commitment.”

Instead of developing individual plots for separate families to tend — “Most people in today’s world don’t have that kind of time,” Hunsberger said — the group leased and planted seven plots in the Dauphin County Community Garden on Elmerton Avenue. On Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings, the volunteers — about 10 in all — gather to tend the grounds.

The produce is grown without pesticides. It goes home with the volunteer gardeners, gets shared weekly with Channels Food Rescue in Susquehanna Twp., or is featured in community events, such as a June food tasting spotlighting fresh appetizers and the Aug. 17 session on gazpacho, salsa and other tomato recipes.

Some delectables, such as the watermelon enjoyed by Alex and George, don’t leave the garden.

“When we picked our first cantaloupe, we just looked at it and said we can’t believe we grew this,” Hunsberger said. “When we cut it open, it smelled so amazing. We ate it right away, and it tasted just amazingly sweet. I never knew that they were so easy to grow.”

Each plot has a theme. The mothers’ garden features table foods such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts and cauliflower.

Fragrant lemon verbena frames the entrance to the medicinal garden, with its oregano, catnip and varieties of thyme.

From the start, the focus has been on children. An arbor growing with vines creates a verdant hiding place. George Bibikos showed off one of the fairy gardens, created from seashells, feathers, twigs and pebbles.

“This is a fairy beach, but it’s different from other beaches,” he said. “It doesn’t have water.”

In the discovery garden, rows planted in an arc sprout with vegetables in the colors of the rainbow — beets, eggplants, carrots.

“We’re teaching children that nutrition isn’t difficult,” Hunsberger said. “If we tried to teach them about vitamin E and vitamin C, their eyes would glaze over. We find that most adults are like that, too, so we’re really emphasizing eating a rainbow of color every day.”

Kristen Bibikos of Lower Paxton Twp., the mother of Alex and George, teaches at events where kids learn to plant seeds, or, armed with magnifying glasses, sleuth for bugs.

“It feels good to be outside and growing your own produce,” Kristen Bibikos said. “I’m teaching the boys where their vegetables come from. They really love coming out and using their imaginations in the garden. They’ve really enjoyed becoming little bug scientists and seeing how these plants start so small and how large they’ve gotten.”

Fall produce will include Jerusalem artichokes and a row of gourds now sprouting in vibrant green.

Each year, the gardeners experiment with something new. This year, it’s peanuts. Last year, it was cotton.

“It was the neatest experience to the kids to see the connection between this little pod and how this really is clothing,” Flatley said. “They’ll actually pick the food and eat it. It’s funny how we’re so disconnected from that, that it’s groundbreaking.”

The Children’s Rainbow Garden promotes “quality of life” in the community, Hunsberger said.

“We’re really trying to do things in a way that shows people that living healthful, eating fresh, and living sustainably is really not that difficult,” she said. “It doesn’t matter what socioeconomic place you come from or what culture. It’s a garden project that’s open to everyone.”

DETAILS:

The Children’s Rainbow Garden is in the Dauphin County Community Garden, Elmerton Avenue, Susquehanna Twp.

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